| Man Vs. Machine Authored by Curtis A. Clark - May 9, 2006 - 3:29 pm
The NBA’s second round match up between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers is the perfect example of what wins and what sells in the NBA. It pit’s the leagues rising star and its marketing center piece against the best “Team” in the NBA. A contest of a one man marketing wonder struggling against a team that runs with a machine like efficiency.
Lebron James is a product of what should be called the Michael Jordan generation of NBA talent. Kids who were in their teens or younger when Michael was tongue wagging his way to 6 NBA titles. MJ was the genesis of the posterization, the exploitation, and marketization of NBA talent across multiple fields of entertainment and sport. These kids are high light craving talents that think the best way to emulate MJ is to dunk on a guy or jack up 30 shots a game. Never mind that MJ was the leagues best perimeter defender, that he played within a precise triangle offense, or that he won his titles with a constructed team effort featuring another great player in Scottie Pippen. This generation of talent only emulates the parts of MJ that they saw on sportscenter and read about in magazines. In short they only emulated the part that was marketed.
Is it any wonder then, that in a hope to recapture the hey day of MJ, that the NBA pushes Kobe, Lebron, Carmello, and Wade, all MJ disciples, into our faces at every turn. Forget the Spurs and Pistons, the NBA’s most recent champs and their blue collar approach. The NBA execs continue to create a league fueled by its stars, feeling a need to recreate the formula of success from the 90‘s.
When it comes to round 2 of the 2006 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs, the headlines are scripted “King James vs. the Pistons, We Are All Witnesses.” Well we are witnesses, as we have been since MJ left, to the focus of a team game on an individual who can do remarkable things. We are witnesses to a calculated effort to find the heir apparent. The heir that has been Grant Hill, Vince Carter, Tracy Mgrady, Kobe Bryant, and now Lebron James.
This however is a disservice to basketball. The very way the game is marketed contributes to its decline in America. Why can’t American players hit jump shots anymore? Why do teams draft raw athletic freaks instead of solid college players? Why can’t the league handle its players ever rising ego problems? Why is the game more one on one and isolation than every before? The answer is because players live in the shadow of the image of Michael Jeffery Jordan. That shadow creates “Starburys“, “Franchises“, “T-Macs”, and “Mellos”. Players who dominate the ball and look only to score or make scoring assists, plays that make sportscenter. The plays they saw Michael make over and over again in highlights and commercials.
That is why the NBA would love the Cleveland Cavaliers to upset the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons wont help the NBA make money, not like Lebron would, but they will help the game of basketball. The Pistons just want to win and don’t care how they have to do it. Any night any one of 6 or 7 players can snag the headline and there is no second thought about it. In game 4 against the Bucks it was Billups, game 5 Hamilton, game 1 against the Cavs it was Tayshaun Prince, but you could have just as easily made a case for about 5 other players. That doesn’t leave one man to cast the lime light on.
The Pistons are dedicated to the team game, because the team brand of basketball is just better, players don’t win titles, teams do. The Bulls were a team, the Lakers pre-melodrama were a team, and San Antonio and Detroit are teams.
It is both a blessing and a curse that the Pistons have to go through stars instead of teams on their way to the finals. In one sense it is beneficial that those stars will draw more viewers to see and admire the Pistons team game. On the other hand it is a curse because at the end of the day when Detroit advances and Cleveland’s season ends, all the talk will be of Lebron. Not of Detroit, not even of the Cavaliers.
The Pistons however couldn't care less, they are not trying to tongue wag their way to a title, they are not trying to be Jordan‘s Bulls, in fact they aren’t trying to be anything other than champions. A great example to the next generation of NBA talent, unfortunately not a marketable one.
Curtis A. Clark
Feedback Welcome at Realgm_Detroit@hotmail.com |
